Just Eat It: Beef Stroganoff With Orecchiette

By StiffMy inspiration for cooking can come from a variety of things. Sometimes I get inspired by having a dish from a restaurant that I’ve never had before and try to replicate it at home. Sometimes inspiration comes from recipes I may see on television. I mostly get inspired by the certain items I see in the grocery store or farmer’s market.

Sometimes I fail at the outcome of what I’m making and sometimes I succeed. I just like to try new things and expand my horizons when it comes to testing new ingredients or cooking methods.

James, my fiancé is a great guinea pig. He will generally eat whatever I make and is honest about how the food tastes. Unlike James, I myself am much more critical about how my food turns out.

In a large pan, coat bottom with olive oil and heat to medium-high heat. Salt and pepper each side of the steaks and add to hot pan, crisp each side of steak and turn heat down to medium-low and add garlic, bay leaf and water.

Cover pan and allow meat to braise for at least 1.5 hours. After 30 minutes in the pan, add another 3/4 c. of water. The meat will be absorbing all of the liquid as it cooks. You may need to continue to add small amounts of water every 20 minutes so the pan does not dry out and so the meat braises properly. You should be able to take two forks and easily pull meat apart when beef is done.

In a large pot, fill about 3 quarts of water into the pot, add salt and bring to a boil. Once water has come to a boil add pasta and cook half way through and drain. The pasta will continue to cook in the sauce.

Keep any broth left in the pan and remove the meat and shred into smaller pieces and set aside. Remove bay leaf and discard.

Returning to the pan with the broth, turn heat to medium and slowly whisk in 1/2 c. of sour cream. Once sour cream is integrated, whisk in milk. Temperate one egg into the sauce. When adding the tempered egg to the sauce, whisk the sauce continuously while slowly adding the tempered egg. Even once all of the egg is added, continue to stir sauce so egg does not cook like scrambled eggs in the sauce.

*To temper an egg, you simply crack it into a bowl and scramble it. Add hot water, in this case, pasta water and slowly add the water to the egg while whisking the egg the entire time so it does not cook the egg but simply brings the temperature up.

Add pasta to sauce pan and continue to stir together so egg does not cook. Add two ladles of pasta water to the sauce pan and continue to stir. Once sauce is thickened and most of it is absorbed by the pasta, add the remainder sour cream, meat and scallions. Mix until thoroughly combined.